


Clouds In the Glass

by orphan_account



Series: Sticks and Stones Break These Bones [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Abuse, Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Don't worry it gets better, F/F, F/M, Finally, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, Non-Sexual Slavery, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Child Abuse, Poor Reader, Reader Is A Skeleton, Skeleton Reader, Slavery, Social Anxiety, Tags will be updated as the story progresses, YOU ESCAPE THAT HELL HOLE, You've got it rough at first, degrading treatment
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:34:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28359399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Life has a weird way of putting you through hell, just to get where you belong. Your own personal hell has been a long experience into your adulthood, filled with pain sorrow and loneliness. It doesn't help you're both in the possession of a deranged human man, and a magical skeleton.Somehow despite the dangers and despite the fears you escape. Somehow, you've broken the repetitive loop of your nightmare.What's next now that you're safe? And why are these skeletons so surprised to see another skeleton unlike themselves?
Relationships: Alphys/Undyne (Undertale), Papyrus (Undertale)/Reader, Sans (Undertale)/Reader
Series: Sticks and Stones Break These Bones [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2076876
Comments: 25
Kudos: 126





	1. First Steps Into Freedom

Moonlight ominously fills the hall before you, lighting up the singular vase of flowers resting gently on the floor. Even though the ceramic is taller than you, these were always your favorite plants to water during daytime hours when you were allowed to travel the house. It's almost a jarring change from the rush and constant fear to the quiet, almost suffocating silence. It's not like the fear has left either. You've stolen a pair of socks from the wash just to muffle the clack of your feet on the floor as you approach the back door. The metal of your suppression collar scrapes gently against you clavicle, and with a final step, you're at the back door. You're waiting for the screams from the man demanding you return back to your room, threatening you with the dark room, any form of detection to slip past his ears, but it's still as silent as it was when you started your escape. The sun had just recently fallen, it must be anywhere near 9 at night by now, and the jarring freedom sends you into a flashback. You can't help but recap on how you got here.

_You've been here as long as you can remember. Your father was a skeleton just like you, with vibrant orange eye lights. He was cheerful, and always found a way to cheer you up. You remember the days leading up to your capture. When he cried over your human mother's death while still holding her favorite necklace. He dusted mere hours later, the entire time trying to fight the grief of his bond so he wouldn't leave you parentless. His bravery wasn't enough however, and he succumbed to the despair filling his deeply cracked soul. Your own honey colored tears left permanent stains in your memories. The man found you soon after that. Your father had always told you stories of the monsters, of the great war leading to them being trapped beneath the mountain. He always told you your family was lucky. As both skeletons and boss monsters, our subspecies had been the first to fall extinct. Elementals were reduced to a handful of fire types, with all others gone. The monsters were able to protect themselves from further extinction, but many brave souls had been lost. Your father told you the stories of how your great grandmother left the area all together, with her husband following. They were a monster-human couple which at the time was cause for death._

_You knew now why he warned you away from human contact._

_The man was kind at first, which you now know is utter bullshit. You were played right into his hands in desperate need for comfort over your parents. The fear and shock when the collar was applied wouldn't amount to your years of abuse however._

The cold night air is almost too unreal to yourself as you step onto the lawn. You've spent years staring out the fading windows, hoping and praying you'll see the familiar skull of your father breach the thick tree-line, or really anyone approaching to save you. The man hasn't let you outside in all your time here. He's kept you in the basement, with the magic suppressing collar draining your life essence until you can barely force magic into your eye-lights. You're staring at the house with empty eye-sockets. It's not like you could reignite them if you tried, you don't have enough magic for anything. Hell, even walking into the back forest of the property is draining on your frail bones. There's a stained and ripped shirt barely covering your shaky ribs, and a pair of disgusting shorts clinging to your femurs. Thankfully, the man has never figured our you're a female skeleton, because you've heard him more than once saying how cute these revealing shorts are on you. He's told you countless times how he wished you were a little girl. _He's always WANTED a little girl maid for him._ He did find you before your teenage years, and thankfully you've never felt comfortable with your ecto-body. Disgust crawls down your spine as you rush further into the plants. That part of your life is over now you hope. You're an adult now. Monsters have also resurfaced a few years back, so you can finally be out in public.

The dark of the forest has your anxiety sky-rocketing to unimaginable levels. You've only had this bone-rattling feeling when the man locks you in the room. It's completely silent there. Dark as hell too, next to no room to move, and you've spent hours on end crying and screaming to be let out. The silence has weighed heavily on your fragile sanity. Thankfully the forest isn't as quiet.

You don't know how long you've been walking and at some point you ditched the soaked socks covering your feet. They clung heavily due to the mud of the ground, and walking without them is more comfortable than with. You're just about to sit and rest, when the alluring scent of food catches your attention. The magic that would normally rush to your mouth cavity to form an ecto-tongue is quickly constricted by the collar, sending you to the ground in a pained whine. The magic is still rushing heavily towards your skull in bursts you haven't felt before, but the collar continues to do it's job despite your pain. Nearly screaming in pain, you force your soul to call the magic back. The pressure on your vertebrae slowly drains until you're left shaking against a tree. The scent of food hasn't stopped saturating your nasal cavity yet; and honestly you don't want it to. The man only feeds you scraps from his own meals, or simply locks you in the basement for days on end until you're nearly screaming from the dust coating your teeth from biting your own arms. 

The tree-line is cut by a huge fence encasing the house inside. You really don't want to trespass onto whoever's property this is, but your instincts burn heavily in your bones as you scale the fence. Whoever cooked what you're smelling seems to be an amazing cook. You land on the soft soil of a garden bed with your clawed toes digging into the ground. You take a hiding spot in a strange smelling flower bush. For once you're glad you can't ignite your eye-lights, because the dead-socketed stare piercing the bright window is extremely useful for seeing exactly where the smell is coming from.

There are (surprisingly) 8 skeletons seated at a large dining table, all animated in conversation and digging into their plates. You notice that a few look nothing like you, with almost gaping holes beside their teeth, giving them each an animated skeletal smile. One of them has a huge row of sharp teeth, another having the same set with two golden canines, and two others with normal pairs. Then there are the rounder skeletons also seated at the table. Similar to you, their mouths seem to be a singular space lacking the typical skeleton complexion. Your skull isn't as round as each of the strange looking skeletons, and not quite as long as the other four. In your analysis of the strange skeletons, you've also noticed how one of them has approached the back door. They're wearing a large orange hoodie as they disappear from the window. The other one with two golden canines follows them.

As the door opens to reveal them both stepping onto the back porch, you can hear the shockingly loud voices coming from the dining table inside. There are animated shouts cut off as the golden toothed skeleton closes the door behind them. You can hear both of their male voices piercing the silence from your hiding spot in their yard. It's a rather small yard actually, and you're about 6 feet from their spot. It's not a smart place to hide and honestly this flower bush smells horrendous to your heightened senses. Their conversation reaches you finally.

"Hey Slim, didja grab that new game at the store today?" The orange hoodie-clad skeleton says quietly as he pulls what resembles a dog treat from his pocket.

"Nah, you know how Edge is. He's got his head so far up his ass thinking he's in charge like that..." Slim responds. He sits on the porch step like the other skeleton is.

"Hey it's fine. We can just start up Halo or somethin' later. Didn't take the basement for nothin' ya know. It's like a man cave for smokin' and playin' games haha..."

The skeleton lights the dog treat as it sits limply in his jaws. Glowing orange smoke trails from the end of the treat.

"Well Stretch you'd play anything over again. I'd rather play something new... Anyway, how'd that interview go?"

The two carry into casual conversation from there. So Slim and Stretch are their names. It's not like you'd have to remember that, you're just here waiting for a chance to steal some food from their trash or something. The longer their conversation drones on, and the more treats they smoke, the weaker your legs become. You've been squatting the whole time, and sitting down would cause too much noise, so you can't exactly move. You really don't want to get caught anyway. But the ache in both of your patellas is starting to sharpen. You can feel magic trying to heal the weakened bones, but just like always it's blocked by the collar. Your body- being 100% reliant on magic for both movement and natural healing- can't heal itself without the man allowing it to. He's not here either, and you don't want to make it worse. It's when an old wound on your particularly weak knee starts to tear open that you let out a small hiss of pain. There are many wounds covering your body that are still open from today... And a slightly dusting gash on your patella from when the man smashed it against the floor. He shoved you down extremely hard, which caused the shatter-

"Slim didja hear that?" Stretch is looking almost directly at you, scanning the flowerbed you've hidden yourself in. Fear saturates your whole body in a stiff wave. His eye-lights scan until they rest on your hidden form. Slim looks around in confusion for a second.

"No, what is it?" He says quietly. Stretch is still staring almost right at you, tense moments of silence still reigning over the yard.

You would have been able to keep quiet and still out of fear, but a rush of magic directs itself at your leg; which is obviously cut off by the collar in a painful squeeze. The small light on the side of it activates with a soft red light and the animalistic whine is extremely loud. Dust practically pours from your newly reopened wound. You see both skeletons jump up immediately, and dangerous intent fills the air from their magic, but you're left nearly passing out from the pain. You couldn't speak if you tried and all the while the collar continues to block your magic from sealing the dusting wound.

"What the fuck was that??" Slim whispers to the skeleton glaring directly at you.

"Some creep stalking in the bushes." Stretch replies, as he approaches your hiding place.

You let out a weak growl in warning- but it does nothing to deter him. The collar's pressure on your vertebrae is blinding at this point due to the magic fighting to heal you. It's a troublingly confusing battle between your own biology, and as the skeleton stands in front of the bush, your instincts kick in. Your whining in both fear and pain as you dart from the bush, returning to the point you entered the wall. Of course you can hear Slim shouting in confusion and Stretch quickly following you as you attempt to scale the wooden barrier. Not even your claws can help you, and your bad knee twists in a horrible crack sound. You collapse into a pathetic ball on the soil.

"Is that..." Slim starts, but the quiet voice of Stretch cuts him off.

"Another skeleton?"

Your bones are rattling rather loudly from beneath your tattered clothes, and another fearful growl trembles from your ribcage. Cold dust is still trickling from your twisted knee as Stretch slowly approaches. His looming figure is no longer another skeleton, but the man. He's laughing above you ~~Stretch is trying to talk to you through your hyperventilating cries~~ His hand is coming down to slap you, he's going to lock you in the room ~~He's trying to comfort you, as Slim rushes inside to tell the other skeletons.~~ And just as quickly as you left, you took a deep breath to see the skeleton in front of you panicking. He's got his hands near you, which kickstarts your mind into high gear to get away from him. You can't hear it through your panic, but you're letting out a painfully hoarse scream as you back away. Several more skeletons are coming outside and _honestly you just want to run away from this place._

Minutes pass as all the skeletons are herded inside by a short skeleton. He looks far too serious Stretch is still near you, close enough for you to smell the warm scent of honey and his natural scent. It's extremely comforting. Slim seems to have gone inside with the rest of the skeletons, which leaves you curled into yourself against the fence, Stretch about a foot away kneeling, and the shorter skeleton approaching slowly. They're having a conversation you couldn't care to listen in on, as you hold your injured leg closer. You wish they'd leave you alone so your soul could stop beating so hard against your ribcage, but the movement of the short skeleton reminds you they aren't leaving.

"hey kid, can you hear me?" His deep voice is quiet and cautious. You can feel his magic responding defensively despite you posing no threat. You're assuming the dead eyed sockets and lack of magic aura must be what's startling him. Your own voice comes out in a painful grind, to which both skeletons seem unsettled by.

"Yeah." Your bones still haven't stopped rattling softly.

"What's you're name, and why are you in our yard?" 

You actually have to think about this one. You remember your dad calling you something like "sunflower" a lot, but that was a nickname, and the man never called you anything but 'bitch' or 'bones'.

"No name. Running away." Your voice still aches from misuse, and you know with the collar you won't be able to speak.

"running away from where?" Stretch speaks up, cutting the smaller skeleton off.

"...danger. Pain." You don't know what else to describe it as. It certainly wasn't home.

"...you don't have a name, huh?" The shorter skeleton seems suspicious.

"no." You've stopped shaking, but the collar is still suppressing your magic.

You finally feel the shorter skeleton's magic searching your soul, what you've been expecting the entire time. He's performing a check. You're also expecting the surprised expression crossing his skull.

"you... don't have..."

"No magic. Collar. P-pai-" You're cut off as another pulse of magic attempts to rush to the patella, only to be absorbed and stopped by the collar. A harsh cough breaks your sentence.

"Stars, that collar's going to kill them! Sans we have to take it off." Stretch is closer now, but you're coughing too hard to notice or care as he picks you up. You're incredibly light to him, which you'd understand if you could stop coughing. Dust is nearly spraying with each harsh exhale. The warmth of their home is comforting as you calm down long enough to notice you're being carried by Stretch. Almost instantly you fight against his hold, pale tears spewing from your empty sockets. You're wailing, you're crying and sobbing, until finally he sets you down on the couch in their living room. You're right next to him still, hugging yourself as more tears simply fall. You can faintly see their pale yellow shimmer as they trail your zygomatic arches. Stretch looks a mixture of baffled and hurt as Sans walks in.

"what happened?" 

"they freaked out suddenly, i don't know why."

Your voice is still killing you, especially from that panicked screaming, but you manage to speak.

"D-don't touch. Please." You're shaking harder than before, dust still leaking from your patella. You're starting to wonder if that's dangerous...

Their deep voices fade, as you fall forward into Stretches chest. As it turns out, you realize loosing that much Dust without healing IS dangerous for you as you pass out.


	2. Are you REALLY awake?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You're extremely pissed when a few skeletons decide to try to remove your collar while you sleep.

You don't know how long you've been running.

The metacarpals of your feet are aching with every rushed step, as you continue to bolt through the trees. You've ducked behind a tree when you hear a haunting cry echo through the forest. A terrifyingly familiar cry.

"Where'd you run off to, my little skeleton?"

If you had lungs you had no doubt they'd be bursting from the immense pressure you've put on them so far, but the rushed panting of recovery hurts enough that you have to push the pain away to stay focused. You're trying to be silent as you peek behind the damp bark, but your hand slips- in the process, crunching down on a dead branch. Hollow echoing is soon interrupted by a high pitched screech. You're up in an instant, leaping over obstacles to escape the approaching threat. You make the mistake of turning for an instant to see what exactly is chasing you. All the air once trying to enter you comes out in a horrified scream. It's the man- you know it is, but his body is too far deformed to look human. His arms are spindly; curling around trees and snapping them in his wake. His body is shrunken to the point he looks like a starved corpse, legs pulling over the forest floor, but his face is what surprises you the most. Despite the skin surrounding his eyes being a sickly grey, and his normally shaven face covered in stubbed skin, you can still make out a sickly sweet smile on his face as another chilling screech along with a single sentence erupts from him. 

**_"Yo U' ~~r~~ ~~E~~ M ~~I nE~~."_ **

Both of his hands wrap around your waist to pin your arms beneath their iron grip. You start thrashing, trying to fight him off you in any way you can. At some point you feel your foot collide with something solid and a pained groan come from whatever you hit, but you're too panicked to focus. More pairs of hands seem to come from every angle; pinning you down to the wet earth, covering your shoulders, holding your neck, and for once in your life you feel the panic of death force itself through your adrenaline. You know he's going to kill you this time. He's had his fun, using you like a play-thing to clean, to be his punching bag whenever he was upset, using you as a relief for his sick twisted needs of power and control- and you've come to accept it all meant nothing. He was never going to let you go no matter how hard you fought. How hard you beg. How loud you scream. But damn if you were going to make it easy for this son of a bitch.

Your sockets have been closed since he grabbed you, and now you know you need to really try to fight back against him. The hands continue to hold your thrashing body down, exactly three pairs. You know he has another pair around your neck. 

Splitting pain shoots up from where your collar is tightly secured. Your magic is trying to burst out, and you're in danger, _and you're almost there-_

Your foot connects harshly with his ~~skull~~ face, earning you a pleasing grunt of pain. The other hands tighten against you as you continue to kick around for something to hit. More hands connect with your shins, shoving them harshly into the ~~couch~~ soil, allowing hands to return to your neck. Your screams haven't ceased since the start of the attack. More pain erupts from the collar, a huge burst of unfamiliar magic fills your senses, and two equally surprising things happen.

The first, your sockets open immediately to see several pairs of both pained and surprised eye lights, with the short skeleton _Sans_ nursing a nearly dusted and heavily cracked jaw, and clutching your broken collar.

The second, is a powerful surge of magic that rushes incredibly fast to your eye sockets, which light on fire with burning golden magic. You can feel the scalding particles slowly drifting out from both of your lit eyes, and more magic healing your previous injuries. Hostile magic is quickly filling the room, from both you and the other skeletons watching you cautiously. It happens within seconds- so fast that you can't control it when your ecto-flesh fills your tattered clothes in a wave of damp-smelling magic. Your shirt was certainly not enough to hide your formed flesh, nor were your shorts. You vaguely see a few cover their faces at the involuntary magical display. You look up with your tear covered face and burning eye-lights at the only skeleton- the tall skeleton you remember as Stretch- staring at you with surprise in his expression. 

"D-DON'T JUST STAND THERE!? CAN SOMEONE PLEASE GRAB ME SOMETHING TO COVER WITH?" Your shrill voice cracks from screaming previously.

Of course out of your nightmare, you've some what realized what was happening. You remember passing out on the couch from... dust loss? You also remember your nightmare, and when it started to become reality when the skeletons held you down. You're not sure why they decided to take your collar off while you were sleeping, but you couldn't be more relieved to feel your magic again. Although you hate how it happened- they shouldn't have gotten to see so much physical magic in that context, and you're extremely upset about the triggering nightmare. In fact, the only reason you're not having an anxiety attack right now from being held down is the practically intoxicating swell of new magic calming your screaming soul. You know this little situation's going to come back to haunt you. A blanket interrupts your train of thought, which you greedily wrap around your body to hide the glowing flesh from the prying eyes of four male skeletons.

"so, kid- er.... uh, buddy. you alright?" Sans speaks up after another tall skeleton stops pressing his large red mitten to the injured jaw. Green wispy plasma slowly fades from the now healed bone. You're halfway relieved to see you didn't dust him. If you had, you would have no doubt stooped to the man's level, and you couldn't handle that.

You remain silent as you survey the room. You can't help your wandering magic checking each of the monsters around you.

**Sans**

**Atk:1**

**Def:1**

**HP: 0.5/1**

***he's not too happy right now**

Sans isn't too scary to you. However, the next skeleton looks extremely aggressive with two threatening red eye lights glaring at you.

**Edge**

**Atk: 63  
**

**Def: 47**

**HP: 434/500**

**He's considering impaling you for scuffing his armor.**

You don't like this one. You know if these skeletons keep you here, you're going to avoid him at all costs.

**Papyrus**

**Atk: 20**

**Def: 20**

**HP: 680**

**He wants to help you**

You watch his expression change to something cryptic as he no doubt feels your magic reaching out to check him. Oh well.

**Stretch**

**Atk: 32**

**Def: 60**

**HP: 1**

**He thought you were male. He's not complaining though**

You actually grimace at this one. Each skeleton has been focused on you, but NOT LIKE THAT!

"...yeah I'm fine." Your hand comes up to hold your free neck. "thank you for taking that off." Your golden eyelights scan the room in it's new appearance. Of course you could still see when your collar suppressed them, but now that the golden rims of warmth could light, you can see the magic on their bones. It filled each of the joints in their neck, as well as the hands of skeletons watching you that you could see.

"No problem, your collar was really hurtin' you after... that." Stretch spoke up.

You uncomfortably pull the blanket higher up on your clavical as the previously silent skeletons start exiting the room to Sans's request. After a minute of loud whispering from edge- _THAT BUBMBLING INBRED SCRATCHED MY- YES I KNOW **IT** WAS ASLEEP- YOU VANILLA BASTARD- _the room was finally empty of skeletons except for a tired looking Sans. He turned back to you with empty sockets as he approached the couch. The closer he got the harder your soul began pounding, magic flooding into your hands as they gripped the blanket around your shoulders. His dark sockets cornered you into the couch, and he grabbed the front of your shirt to pull you into his face. You turned yours as far as you could, watching his scowl practically leak anger.

**"you're lucky you kicked me and not my brother. pull shit like that again and you're dust."**

You whimper a 'yes sir' as he releases you. Within moments he has your trembling form on an unfamiliar bed in a dark room. He mumbles a "sleep here" before leaving, and you're left alone. In a dark room. You know you won't be falling asleep tonight, not with the panicked screams filling your soul as you back into the corner of the bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MC didn't mean to hurt Sans! Or to kinda hurt the others- but when someone's having a nightmare, grabbing and pinning them is the worst idea. Seriously. So IMP sans deserved it. We'll see what happens once her living arrangements are decided! Sorry It took so long to post too, school recently decided to kick my ass with fresh assignments after mid terms and the break.   
> ALSO CLIFFHANGER WOOOOOOO what happens next????

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, reminder to myself to NOT START A STORY WHEN IT'S 3AM BEACUSE I WILL FINISH THE CHAPTER AT 6 IN THE MORNING  
> Anyway, I can't wait to get this story rolling! I'll probably update in weird patterns lol uhhh yeah.
> 
> Thank you for reading this far! I hope this is good!


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